On June 25, 1975, a huge rally of Jayaprakash Narayan and his comrades at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi was declared an emergency.

New Delhi, June 25, 2020, Thursday

June 25, 1975 is considered as a black day for the imposition of a state of emergency in independent India. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to impose emergency in the country. This emergency lasted for two years in which not democracy but Johukami was running. India's oldest political party, the Congress, has ruled India for the longest time. In the situation in which the British left the country in 1947, the cloak of democracy was unified by the Congress, so the emergency of Indira Gandhi's time is considered as an iron nail in a gold plate. Freedom of the press was felt to be a British monarchy. First of all, it is interesting to know what happened before and near the emergency.

The Emergency Chapter was formed immediately after the 1971 Lok Sabha elections. Raj Narayan, Indira Gandhi's rival in the Lok Sabha elections, had filed a case in the Allahabad High Court alleging that PM Indira Gandhi had misused the government machinery to win the elections. The case was the first time in the history of independent India that a prime minister has gone to court. On June 12, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha convicted Indira Gandhi. This was a historic judgment in the Indian judiciary that tarnished the image of Indira Gandhi. On June 24, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court judgment with certain conditions. Mrs. Gandhi continued as Prime Minister but the Opposition did not consume anything from her resignation. Opposition to Indira Gandhi was growing. The opposition also seemed to be able to take the political issue to the people.

Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (JP) challenged Indira Gandhi. A huge rally was held at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan in which besides JP, many stalwart leaders like Morarji Desai, Jana Sangh's Atal Behari Vajpayee and Chandrasekhar were present together. The verses of JPA national poet Ramdharisinh Dinkar's poem "Empty the throne that the people come" was a challenge The JPA also gave an ultimatum to Indira Gandhi to leave the throne at the rally. The rally was so huge that for the first time since the country became independent, there was a wonderful combination and unity in the opposition. JP's rally ended at 9 p.m.

It is believed that Indira Gandhi lost her temper based on one chronology after another. It was decided to impose a state of emergency across the country at 12 o’clock at night to suppress the opposition. The then President Fakruddin Ali Ahmed signed and approved the decision to impose emergency. One by one, opposition leaders were arrested and imprisoned.

On June 26, 1975, Indira Gandhi herself declared a state of emergency on All India Radio. On June 28, several newspapers protested the emergency by keeping the pages blank, censoring the press. The Emergency lasted for 21 months in which Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay Gandhi was discredited for his controversial political activities and for being a supporter of the Emergency. The emergency was finally lifted and in January 1977, Indira Gandhi announced the Lok Sabha elections in which the Congress was defeated and a non-Congress government was formed for the first time in India known as the Janata Government.